


Flee the horrors.

by Postapokalypso



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: 2017 gift exchange, First Kiss, Fluff, Frostiron Secret Santa, M/M, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 14:26:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13125576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Postapokalypso/pseuds/Postapokalypso
Summary: Tony just needs a timeout. But he won't be left alone, not even in a cabin in the middle of the Canadian woods.Because Asgard was just destroyed and someone Tony never expected to see again seeks his aid.A gift for nonexistenz for the Frostiron Secret Santa





	Flee the horrors.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nonexistenz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nonexistenz/gifts).



> Hey there lovely Nonexistenz, here is you gift on time for Christmas.  
> It didn't get really long, but I hope you'll like it anyway. I tried to make it as fluffy as my inner critic allowed. Fluff is very hard and I didn't want to get cheesy, so here it is. My cheesiest piece :D
> 
> Wish you a very happy christmas! :)
> 
> (Also, I don't know if there is a collection for his or anything, if there should be, you can call my attention to it if you like)

"Rhodey please, I just need some time for myself." Tony threw a sweater into his suitcase and slammed it shut. "I promise I won't be lonely okay?"

"You can't just promise stuff like that." Rhodey sat down on the bed.

"Okay, if I get lonely I'll give you a call, you can come out there, we'll spend a night spooning and all will be well."

  
  


This made Rhodey chuckle. "Look Tony, I understand you, really, I do. But I know you're upset you and that kid got into a fight and about the thing with Pepper of course."

"Peter and I didn't get into a fight," Tony crossed his arms. "Things just got a little heated okay? He'll calm down."

Rhodey shrugged. "Okay. You have enough warm jumpers?"

"I have about twenty."

"And how will you get there?"

"I'll drive."

"All the way?"

"Jeez, Rhodey," Tony heaved the suitcase up from the bed and carried it past him, out of the door. "Stop worrying already. I'm not some old geezer who keeps losing his teeth or something."

 

Rhodey nodded and lowered his head to look at the floor. "It's been five months since she broke up with you. It's final this time isn't it."

 

Tony felt a cold feeling rush through his stomach. He hesitated a moment before answering. "Yeah, I'm afraid so."

 

....................................................................................................

 

Tony had rented a cabin in the middle of Canadas forests. Even the next gas station was about ten miles away and that was exactly what Tony needed right now. Pure solitude.

 

He turned the radio on and Falcos voice emerged from the speakers, singing about how he was just an egoist and the world only revolved around him. Some years ago, this could have been Tony's song. But not any more. He still turned the volume up, he found the song quite catchy.

 

When he finally arrived at the cabin, he felt like he could sleep through four days. Rhodey might have been right, taking a helicopter would have been much less tiresome.

 

Cold wind, sharp and cutting as a fresh blade blew snow into his face, when he pushed the cars door open. Quickly he unloaded his luggage, carried it to the entrance and pulled out the key to unlock the door. It took him only about ten seconds, but the air was so freezing, his hands hurt like hell, even then. Tony shoved his things into the cabin and shut the door behind him. The only thing remaining of the wind, was a soft howling sound outside the door.

 

Tony found logs in a small storage room beside the entrance and lit a fire to warm the house up and to unfreeze his hands and feet. A large red couch stood before the fireplace. Tony laid down on it and immediately fell asleep.

When he awoke, darkness had settled outside and the fire was nearly out. Tony threw in some more logs and stretched. He hadn't had such a good sleep in ages.

 

He made himself a cup of coffee and sat down at the kitchen table. There was a big window right next to it and he could see thick flakes of snow falling outside. Tony wished he could live like that forever. But just like he couldn't promise Pepper to stop getting himself in danger, that was no possibility.

 

"Mr. Stark?" FRIDAY spoke from his tablet, lying on the table. "I abide by your demand not to bother you with the things occurring in the outside world but something has just happened in very close proximity and I thought you might prefer it if I notified you."

Tony put his cup down. "What happened?"

He couldn't believe it. Even this far from civilization, trouble seemed to find him.

 

"A familiar heat signature has appeared about two and a half miles south from here. The signature has been classified as hostile and belongs to someone named Loki Laufeyson. Your encounter with him must have been before my creation."

 

Tony stood up so rapidly, his chair landed on the floor with a loud clatter. "Did you say Loki? Are you sure?"

"Very sure," FRIDAY replied. "Although I can check the data again if you want me to."

"No,no." Tony said. "No, don't. Just ...get my suit ready. I need it up and running in two minutes."

"Of course Mr. Stark. But are you sure you should go alone? Loki Laufeyson is described as extremely dangerous in my files."

 

"I'll just take a look at the situation," Tony said. He grabbed the suitcase that held his transportable Iron Man Suit and opened it. Once the parts had attached themselves to his body, he opened the door, stepped outside and pushed himself off the ground. The Canadian night was pitch black and snow was falling heavily. Tony almost couldn't see a thing. "Okay, point me to the direction where he landed. And turn the heat vision on."

 

"You will have to fly two miles south from here." FRIDAY said. Tony followed the directions his suit displayed. About one mile from the destination point, he could see Lokis heat signature. He closed in on the spot until he hovered directly above it and watched. Nothing seemed to move. Loki was still.

 

Tony landed.

"Sir," FRIDAY said. "I don't think you should get close."

"He's not moving, girl." Tony replied. He dragged his heavy suit a few metres until he was able to make out Lokis form through the snowstorm. A blinding shade of red hit his eyes as he got closer. The snow around Lokis body was drenched in blood. Loki himself was already half snowed in, but the color kept coming through.

 

"I can't have a freaking holiday alone, can I?" Tony asked. What should he do now? A part of him just wanted to leave Loki there. One of his last memories of the guy was, after all, him tossing Tony through his own window. However he had managed to survive that, Tony still wondered.

"Well, is he dead?" Tony asked.

"I'm afraid I cannot give any information about his vital state right now."

"Right. Shit." Tony knelt down into the snow and opened his faceplate. He took away the glove from his hand, removed the snow from Lokis face and touched his fingers to his neck, searching for a pulse.

 

He found one. A strong and unwavering pulse. Goddammit. Tony cursed inwardly and stood up again. Had Loki been dead already, he would have had no problem with it. But now that he wasn't, he couldn't just leave him here. Thor still loved him so much, beside his madness. Even if he never found out, that Tony left Loki to die, guilt would torture him forever and especially every time he had to see Thors sad eyes when Lokis name was spoken.

 

He shut the faceplate again, grabbed Loki, heaved him out of the snow and flew off. Blood ran over his hands and dripped down into the darkness. He was almost at his cabin when something hit his suit. Tony felt himself being pushed away, then everything went black for a second and when he opened his eyes again he was lying in the snow and his suit was damaged, blewn to scraps around him.

 

He heard crunching footsteps behind him.

"Don't." a voice, which Tony recognized as Lokis, said. "I will give you what you need, but in return you will leave the remaining Asgardians in peace."

Lokis voice sounded a little shaky when he spoke. Tony slowly turned around and looked up at a tall creature of a man, his face had only a thin layer of skin spread over his bones, as if it was a bare skull wrapped into a balloon. Loki was kneeling on front of Tony and he held something out to that man. Tony knew all too well what it was. The tesseract.

 

"Oh, what will you do if I don't agree to that?" the man asked. "If I take it from you, rip you apart, spill your organs and then do the same with every one and last of your precious Asgardians?"

 

Tony shivered. The voice of that creature seemed to create an echo in every fiber of his being.

Loki scoffed. "I will use the tesseract to flee from you, it gives me that power. And I will continue to do so until Thanos grows weary of your unsuccessful existence and decides to terminate you and pursue me himself. You know it is not unlikely."

 

The tall man considered this for a moment. "Thanos told me I was allowed to spare your lives, as long as I bring him the tesseract. So I will do that," his face distorted into an ugly toothy grin. "For you will die anyway, sooner or later. I have faith in that."

"I know you do." Loki said. He held out the tesseract a bit more. "Beware, when you fought me before, I have cursed you. Should you break your promise, blood will spill from every one of your pores and you will die on the spot."

 

"Oh, will I now?" the man asked, but he sounded a little uneasy. "I won't break my... promise."

"Very well then," Loki answered. "Take it."

The creature extended it's long fingers towards the tesseract and grasped it. Then he was engulfed into bright blue light and vanished on the spot, melting all the snow around him.

Before Tony could say anything Loki collapsed onto the ground.

 

"Sir, your armor is no longer functioning," FRIDAY informed him.

"Great, just great." Tony grumbled. The only positive thing was, that he could see the cabin from here. He opened up the suit and crawled out. Then he took a look at Loki. "Ah, damn."

He grabbed his legs and started pulling him through the snow, towards the cabin. He left a bright red trail.

 

He exited the hut again to retrieve his suit. He could repair it, but it would take some work. By the time he returned Loki was in a puddle of blood on the floor. How much blood did that fucker have, Tony wondered. He fetched the First-Aid-Kit from a closet in the hallway and pulled the bandages out. He had four rolls of them. Another look at Loki made him question whether that would really be enough. And he needed to clean the wounds somehow. Tony scrunched up his face. Why did he have to do this? For a guy who had thrown him out of a window, killed Coulson, brainwashed Clint and led an army of extraterrestrial aliens into New York. He considered letting him die again, that was if Lokis life was even in danger. Most likely, he would survive, whether Tony cleaned the wound or not.

 

But just the thought of those giant wounds infecting themselves, made Tonys stomach rebel. He grabbed Loki by the arms and dragged him into the bathroom. He hesitated a moment, before he knelt down and started undressing Loki. His clothes were ripped into rags, it was a mess of blood and fabric.

 

Whether this was luck or not was questionable, but Tony had seen enough battered bodies by now, to not feel appalled at the sight of Loki. He did however feel hesitant towards touching this mess and forced himself not to think too hard about what he was doing right now. He didn't want to risk throwing up.

 

When he had gotten rid of all of Lokis clothes, more or less, he heaved him into the bathtub and set the water running. When the tub was halfway filled, it was deep red. Tony drained it and started again. He did so about five times, until the water only had a slightly pink tone to it. When Loki looked relatively clean, Tony pulled him out of the water again, wrapped him into a large towel and carried him to the couch. His legs nearly gave in under him, but he managed to get there. He sat him down and started dabbing the wounds with pads he had drained in disinfectant. Loki stirred and opened his eyes. "Be careful..." he croaked, upon seeing Tony.

"You be glad that I'm helping you at all," Tony replied. "I could have left you out there to die."

"Oh, I would not have died." Loki said. He studied Tony curiously and Tony felt himself growing a little uncomfortable by his staring.

"You'd rather be outside?" Tony asked. "Can be arranged."

Loki smiled and slowly brought his hands up. "I didn't say that."

 

Tony resumed dabbing Lokis wounds with the antiseptic. Loki flinched a bit at first, then bit his teeth together and watched Tony. Once more, Tony felt that the looks he was being given were way too intense. He coughed. "So, I think you have a lot of explaining to do. Aren't you supposed to be dead? And isn't the tesseract supposed to be in Asgard?"

"Asgard was destroyed," Loki said, without paying attention to the first question. "I had to trade the tesseract for my peoples lives. And Thors"

"I get it, some stuff has happened since we last met, huh?"

"Some stuff." Loki agreed.

 

"Where is Thor?"

"Blown away into some corner of the universe," Loki said.

"You guys in brotherly terms again?"

"What makes you think that?"

"You saving his life."

"You could say that, I guess."

 

Tony closed the bottle of antiseptic.

"Your planet is in danger too," Loki said. "Thanos plans on invading all of the universe."

"Just who is that guy?" Tony asked.

"He is a titan, mad and powerful. Way more powerful now that he has the tesseract."

 

"Which you gave him." Tony reminded and stood up. Everything that Loki told him, it might be true. But it seemed so far away right now. Tony couldn't quite grasp it yet. And he wouldn't willingly. It would happen anyway, maybe tonight. Then he would wake up, bathed in sweat from ghastly nightmares.

"Which I had to." Loki replied.

Without replying Tony took the band-aids out of the kit and started bandaging a wound on Lokis arm. Loki watched him and said nothing.

"Your stomach got really...messed up." Tony said.

 

Loki smiled. "That's nothing. Once, when I agreed on an Eating Contest with Thor it was way worse."

"Oh, I think anyone could've told you that's a dumb decision."

"Well, I attempted trickery of course. But I was seen through by Sif and had no choice but to partake in the contest by regular conditions."

 

Tony was amused, had to suppress a grin. Loki seemed to notice anyway and eyed him with interest.

"Okay, will you stop staring at me?" Tony asked. He was growing sick of Lokis eyes piercing him. He was not comfortable with the intrigue he felt then. "You need some clothes, wait here, don't move."

He left the room and returned with a big black bathrobe.

"Thank you, " Loki said. "I am just afraid I cannot stand up very well right now."

 

"Well, you try anyway, I'm sick of all this hoopla here." Tony said.

Loki groaned, bit his teeth together and pushed himself into a standing position. The towel slipped from his hips and fell down to the floor. He didn't even bother, just extended his hand towards the bathrobe. While handing it to him, Tony tried to keep his gaze fixed on Lokis face, which Loki took for an invitation to once more lock their eyes into an intense staring battle.

 

"Ok, I was just in the bathroom and checked," Tony said. "There's nothing in my face, so what the hell is wrong with you?"

Loki chuckled, while tying the bathrobe. "Well Stark, it is merely pleasing to look at you. I have been fascinated by you, since our paths crossed in New York. Back then, of course, my madness overshadowed everything else."

 

Tony took a step back. "You're seriously telling me, you've got the hots for me."

"I am not familiar with that saying, but judging from the sound of it, it might be an appropriate term."

Tony stared. "I don't know, I think I prefer the murderous fruitcake."

 

Loki took a step forward. "Why? Does this intimida-" He broke off, because his legs gave in from weakness and he stumbled. He only managed to catch himself, by propping his hands against the wall behind Tony, which caught them both in the most awkward embrace. Loki lowered his head against Tonys chest and chuckled. "I am sorry, give me a second."

Tony could feel his heated breath through his thin shirt and shuddered. Then he brought his hands up to Lokis shoulders and gently shoved him away. He grabbed his arm and helped him back to the couch. "Just get some sleep. If what you say is true, you need to recover quickly, because we need to get word out there about Thanos. "

 

Loki stared at the carpet and seemed lost in thought for a moment.

"Hey there, you heard me?" Tony asked.

"Yes."

 

"Alright then," Tony said, frowning. "Well. I'll go to sleep. Please don't try to kill me."

"Since you are asking so nicely." Loki said. Then he pulled the blanket over his body and turned his back to Tony.

 

The nightmare came, as Tony had feared. He couldn't remember anything but an unbearable sensation of horror, when he awoke. Had he been screaming? He felt breathless and gasped for air, then he threw back the blanket, because he suddenly felt like his body was bursting with heat.

 

"Just breathe, Stark." He felt something warm touch his back. Loki sat next to him on the bed. Tony backed away. "What ...the hell are you doing here?" he panted.

"You did not forbid me to enter your room. I was only asked not to kill you," Loki said. "And I am not planning to."

Tony took a deep breath and looked at him. There was something like concern in his eyes, if he was not mistaken. But knowing Loki, that could very well also be a trick and Tony found that more likely.

"Just...leave me alone. I need to be alone." Tony said. He could hardly bear Pepper, when he had nightmares. Let alone someone like Loki.

 

Loki studied him. Then he laid a hand on Tonys cheek and moved their faces closer together, until they touched at the foreheads. Loki closed his eyes. "I know the horror of your nightmares and I am sorry to have brought it on you."

Tony didn't dare to move. "I don't believe you. Sorry, but whenever you say something like that, I feel like being lied to. It's out of character, like you're screwing with me."

"And I am too close for you liking," Loki said. "At least yet. I realize that. But I may not have the time I wish I had. When I opened my eyes and I saw you, I felt that I wanted, craved to touch you."

Tony flinched a bit.

"I don't mean it in a dirty way," Loki said. "I DID mean intimate. But subtle form of it. I saw a tortured soul like mine. I cannot soothe my own soul. The best I can do is to soothe yours."

"You're getting cheesy," Tony breathed. "What do you want?"

"Just for you, not to feel like you need to be alone with the terrors. I have been for so long and you might think it helps but it does not."

 

Loki opened his eyes again and this time, Tony didn't feel uneasy because of his stare. He felt calm, almost hypnotized. Loki moved forward and kissed Tony. It was a gentle and a very short kiss. Then he withdrew himself from Tony. "I would stay here next to you but only if you allow it."

 

Tony gulped and stared at him. And he realized something. Something Loki likely didn't understand himself. He didn't just do this for Tony. To soothe him. It was after all possible to calm your own soul.

 

Tony nodded and laid down again. Loki slipped under the covers next to him. Tonys head touched his chest, where the bathrobe had opened up just slightly and he could feel the warmth radiating from Lokis skin. His hearbeat drummed loud in Tonys ears. The being next to him was something powerful and old and this lulled Tony into a deep dreamless sleep.

No horrors could reach him now.

 


End file.
